The Blog's Mission

Wikipedia defines a book review as: “a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review can be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review”. My mission is to provide the reader with my thoughts on the author’s work whether it’s good, bad, or ugly. I read all genres of books, so some of the reviews may be on hard to find books, or currently out of print. All of my reviews will also be available on Amazon.com. I will write a comment section at the end of each review to provide the reader with some little known facts about the author, or the subject of the book. Every now and then, I’ve had an author email me concerning the reading and reviewing of their work. If an author wants to contact me, you can email me at rohlarik@gmail.com. I would be glad to read, review and comment on any nascent, or experienced writer’s books. If warranted, I like to add a little comedy to accent my reviews, so enjoy!
Thanks, Rick O.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

OLD MAN'S WAR

This is a 2004 sci-fi book that I'm reviewing because I think it's important to sci-fi fans. Once you read this book, you will immediately want to read the next three in this John Scalzi series. It reminds me of the Mars series written by John Varley.

Can you imagine yourself at 75 years old joining the Army? Can you imagine the consciousness of your brain being transferred to a brain in a young green body? Now you are a member of Colonial Defense Force (CDF). You now have Smartblood, a brainpal computer in your head, and a ten year hitch. But you are not on Earth, you are fighting aliens in a faraway galaxy. If somehow you survive the ten years, you will be transferred out of the green body into a normal body and be given property on a alien planet that you helped colonize! Wow! I have to give John Scalzi credit for making everything in this book so easy to understand, unlike author Vernor Vinge.

The main character in this book is John Perry, who meets and fights many aliens, including the superior Consu race. We also meet his dead wife, Kathy. Kathy died before she could enlist, but returns as Jane Sagan, as a member of the Ghost Brigades. The confrontation between them is comical, since she doesn't know who John Perry is.

In this book, you will learn about skip drive, the old farts, the Rraeys', and CDF colonies. This is where I will stop. I'm not going to give the ending away, but it is good. You will be depressed that the book ended, but good news - there are three more books in this series waiting for you!

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment : I didn't give it five stars, because I wanted the book 200 pages longer! John Scalzi's new book comes out 5/10/2011 called Fuzzy Nation. Another of my favorite authors, Dan Simmons, has a new book coming out 7/1/2011 called Flashback.

No comments:

Post a Comment